Investigation of the technological profile of illegally distributed tobacco derivatives and smoking products

Abstract

The current investigation includes technological assessment and interpretation of the profile of tobaccos, tobacco derivatives and smoking products illegally distributed in Bulgaria, as officially provided for expertise in the Tobacco and Tobacco Products Institute (TTPI) by external contractors (legitimate state structures) in 2021. The physical and chemical properties of the tobacco objects, depending on their nature, were determined according to standardized methods. The biggest share in the analyses (139 in total) took the determination of tobacco cut width (39%) and particle size fractionation (37%), which supported the observation that the illicit tobacco market in Bulgaria is recently dominated by cut tobacco for hand-rolled cigarettes. In the cut tobacco predominated long and medium-sized strands, but in widely varying proportions (42.27-81.78% and 9.98-38.46%, respectively), with cut width in 0.59-1.06 mm range. The sieve analysis and the expert examination of the tobacco derivatives revealed that they were undoubtedly technological tobacco waste, and, respectively, that accentuated data must be communicated to consumers about the risks associated with the smoking of such tobacco articles. It was found that all illicitly traded fine-cut tobacco blends produced considerably higher tar (12.25-16.05 mg/cig) and CO (12.74-16.94 mg/cig) emissions than the limits set for conventional cigarettes.